


Ashes

by Icecat62



Category: Emergency!
Genre: Description of a corpse., Gen, non-character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-20
Updated: 2014-08-20
Packaged: 2018-02-13 22:33:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2167665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Icecat62/pseuds/Icecat62
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Every day is a reminder of what can be lost.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ashes

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted to Johnny's Green Pen - 08/2001.

He hated this part of the job. Poking and digging through the rubble of what had once been someone's home, he cringed as he picked up a piece of piping. Beneath it he found a metal choker collar with blackened tags. As he picked the collar up, bits of ash flaked from it and fell through his gloved fingers. Most firemen would have left it, but he knew that this once belonged to someone's beloved pet, a part of the family. He tucked the collar in a pocket of his turnout coat. 

Swallowing back the bile that rose in his throat, he moved forward. He knew he would be the one to find him. Walking around a pile of rubble, he made his way to the back corner of the room, closing his eyes as he ducked under a fallen ceiling beam. The words that Roy said to him on his first day as a paramedic came rushing back. Remain clinical. Don't get involved. It's a job. 

As he opened his eyes, he stared silently at what had once been a child. Robbie. Robbie Andrews. He was five years old and would never have another birthday. He wouldn't play little league, he wouldn't go to the prom, he would never get married and have a family of his own. 

Kneeling down before the huddled mound of burnt flesh and bone, he could still make out the lines of a human form. Knees tucked up into the chest, arms curled over the head and chest. His throat tightened and he quickly said a silent prayer for the boys journey to his new life. 

Gage stood, his eyes never leaving the boy. He couldn't think of him as a thing. He was still a little boy, a mother's child. He called out to the other firemen searching the structure. "I found him!" There was no elation at being the one to find the body, only a blackness in his soul that matched his surroundings. One more life was extinguished. Ashes to ashes. 

END


End file.
